Daniel Lishman

Daniel Lishman, a 37-year-old former police officer from Raunds in Northamptonshire, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a series of heinous child sex offences committed over nearly a decade. The offences, which included rape, sexual assault, and the possession of hundreds of indecent images of children, came to light following his arrest in April 2010 after an attack on a 12-year-old girl in Southam, Warwickshire.

Lishman exploited his positions of trust to perpetrate at least eight attacks on young victims, primarily in Northamptonshire between early 2001 and February 2010. As a mobile dog groomer and TV licensing officer, he gained access to vulnerable children. In one particularly disturbing incident, he posed as a policeman to indecently assault two young girls. The court heard that he targeted a total of 13 victims, including three with disabilities or learning difficulties. Charges encompassed one count of rape and 12 counts of sexual assault, with Lishman convicted on 26 counts and asking for four others to be taken into consideration.

The breakthrough in the investigation occurred when detectives discovered a camera memory card hidden in one of Lishman's socks during his arrest. The card contained images of him posing indecently near an eight-year-old girl, who had been blindfolded with taped-up goggles in the back of his dog-grooming van. This evidence linked him to a string of prior offences, revealing him as a serial paedophile who systematically abused his victims.

At Coventry Crown Court, Judge Peter Carr described Lishman as 'every parent's worst nightmare', calling him an 'intelligent, but also cunning, devious and extremely plausible man'. The judge noted that Lishman's actions had left many victims too frightened to go out, causing parents to wrongly blame themselves. Lishman, who served with Northamptonshire Police as both a special and regular constable from 1995 to 2002, was forced to resign in 2002 following sexual allegations made by a female adult in May 2001, for which he was disciplined.

Detective Inspector Steve Woliter from Northamptonshire Police commented outside court: 'Lishman was required to resign from our organisation in 2002. From the timescales that we have got from one of his first victims, it would appear that at that time Lishman was also a serving police officer.' The sentencing ensures Lishman must serve at least 11 years before being eligible for parole, reflecting the gravity of his crimes as reported by the BBC on 1 November 2010.